Wednesday, 11 August 2010

Germany 1977

At the ESC 1977 Germany was represented by Silver Convention with the song Telegram. For the first time since 1974, the German entry was chosen internally rather than through a public final.

At the time of their participation at Eurovision, Silver Convention were commercially one of Germany's most successful groups and had already had a succession of big hits across both Europe and North America. They are the only performers in Eurovision history to have had a number 1 single in the USA (with Fly, Robin, Fly) prior to their Eurovision appearance.

Germany had chosen an English-language song before the EBU announced the rule change, so they (along with Belgium who had done the same) were given dispensation to perform in English.

On the night of the final Silver Convention performed 6th in the running order. It is usually acknowledged that the group's professionalism and experience shone through with the slickest stage performance of the night. Telegram was a very contemporary song and had been tipped prior to the contest as a likely challenger for victory; however, like the similarly contemporary song from Belgium's Dream Express, it fell short of expectations in the voting. Telegram" received 55 points from 13 countries.

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For the first single of Silver Convention, Save Me, which was a big hit in the UK, producers and songwriters Sylvester Levay and Michael Kunze, used session vocalists. Silver Convention was only a studio group, and the producers realized then that they would need to find professional entertainers for presentation to the public. They recruited Linda Thompson, former member of the Les Humphries Singers, Penny McLean and Ramona Wulf.

With Fly Robin Fly and Get Up And Boogie they scored huge hits in Canada, U.S.A. and Europe. In 1976 Linda Thompson left the group and was replaced by the American Rhonda Heath. In 1977 Silver Convention was chosen to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Telegram. After this song was chosen the EBU changed the rules, every country should sing in their own language again. The three girls of Silver Convention refused to sing in German so Germany and Belgium, who already chose an English song too, were allowed to sing in English. At the contest Telegram ended on a disappointing 8th place. After the contest the group had a couple of small successes but in 1980 the group split up.

Rhonda Heath sang in 1985 as a backing vocal for Austria and in 1994 for Germany.